Basel / Graz / Stuttgart March 25, 2012 Dear Colleagues Many of You Will Have Heard Through Various Media, Such As Das Goetheanu
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Basel / Graz / Stuttgart March 25, 2012 Dear Colleagues Many of you will have heard through various media, such as Das Goetheanum, Stuttgarter Zeitung, Spiegel Online , etc., that WELEDA is in the midst of crisis unlike any of the past 90 years. The company is facing critical debts and an alarming lack of liquidity, due to circumstances that can by no means be reduced to the costly effort to maintain its range of medicines. In response to this situation in December 2011 the company planned to further reduce the range of medicines and simultaneously raise its prices, while failing to address the main causes of the crisis. Last year at the Annual General Meeting of the General Anthroposophical Society (GAS) some doctors spoke of their concern and warned about WELEDA’s situation. When the company’s situation again worsened the boards of the German, Swiss and Austrian anthroposophic doctors’ associations, as well as the coordinators of the International Coordination of Anthroposophic Medicines (IMKA) saw no other option than to approach the main WELEDA shareholders and conduct numerous, intensive discussions regarding a new orientation for the company – which has to come from the top management. The main shareholders’ representatives, which had begun discussions as part of a new task force last December, analysed the situation and also became proponents of a new orientation. WELEDA’s entire advisory board then announced its resignation. A new board was chosen on March 23, 2012: Paul Mackay (Executive Council, GAS), Andreas Jäschke (Manager of the Ita Wegman Klinik, Arlesheim) – both representing the main shareholders – Harald Matthes (head doctor at the community hospital Gemeinschaftkrankenhaus Havelhöhe, Berlin), Elfi Seiler (pharmacist in Zurich), and Jürg Galliker (an accountant from Basel), as an economics specialist. The first deed of the advisory board was to appoint Ralph Heinisch as WELEDA’s new CEO. Mr. Heinisch has a wealth of experience in restructuring companies as a CEO, including rendering outstanding service to Paracelsus-Krankenhaus in Unterlengenhardt. Doctors in the worldwide movement for Anthroposophic Medicine set up the International Coordination of Anthroposophic Medicines years ago. Since then IMKA has been conducting regular consultations with the manufacturers of anthroposophic medicines, representing the viewpoints of doctors and patients regarding the availability and selection of medicines. WELEDA’s acute restructuring situation poses a special challenge to ensuring the future depth and breadth of available medicines, both in the countries where they are manufactured and abroad. IMKA has delegated the doctors Markus Karutz and Georg Soldner to the task of accompanying WELEDA’s new management during the restructuring process, advising it as to the medicines required by anthroposophic doctors and their patients, and if necessary assisting in the setting of priorities. Paul Mackay, the designated president of the advisory board, expressly welcomes this step. The shared goal of the new advisory board and the doctors is to once again give clear primacy to WELEDA’s central task of supplying an adequate range and volume of anthroposophic medicines, through a fundamental reorientation of the company. It is self-understood that this can only be accomplished with the help of a sound financial situation. It is evident that painful decisions may have to be made. We hope for the understanding and support of doctors and patients worldwide. With warm greetings on behalf of the anthroposophic doctors’ associations in Switzerland, Austria and Germany, Dr. med. Andreas Arendt, Liestal Vereinigung anthroposophisch orientierter Ärzte in der Schweiz (VAOAS, association of anthroposophically oriented doctors in Switzerland) Dr. med. Reinhard Schwarz, Graz Gesellschaft für Anthroposophische Medizin in Österreich (GAMÖ, association for anthroposophic medicine in Austria) Dr. med. Thomas Breitkreuz, Unterlengenhardt Gesellschaft Anthroposophischer Ärzte in Deutschland (GAÄD, association of anthroposophic doctors in Germany) Dr. med. Markus Karutz, Cologne Gesellschaft Anthroposophischer Ärzte in Deutschland (GAÄD, association of anthroposophic doctors in Germany) .